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North Van man clocked going more than 160 km/h on test drive

File photo A North Vancouver driver who was putting a new car through its paces on the weekend managed to test-drive the vehicle straight into the impound lot.

 File photoFile photo

A North Vancouver driver who was putting a new car through its paces on the weekend managed to test-drive the vehicle straight into the impound lot.

West Vancouver police officers doing a speed check of eastbound traffic on Highway 1 Sunday afternoon clocked a white four-door sedan going more than 160 kilometres per hour in a 90 km/h zone between the Cypress Bowl and 22nd Street exits, said Const. Jeff Palmer, spokesman for the department.

When police pulled the 2017 vehicle over just before 2 p.m. they discovered the driver was test driving the car from a local dealership. A staff member for the dealership was riding as the passenger.

The driver, a 46-year-old North Vancouver man, was handed a $468 fine for excessive speeding, while the vehicle was impounded for seven days.

Palmer said despite the unusual circumstances, “the driver is the person responsible. The only one pushing on the accelerator pedal is the driver.”

Palmer said in some circumstances, the registered vehicle owner can sometimes request relief from impoundment from the superintendent of motor vehicles. The dealership – which Palmer refused to name – could also seek compensation in civil court from the driver for temporary loss of inventory, he said.

Palmer added although the circumstances are unusual, the speed enforcement on a long weekend is not. The statistics on accident rates on long weekends mean that is often a time when “officers will pay some extra attention to traffic safety,” he said.

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